NEW INDIGENOUS PLANT NURSERY AT SANI LODGE BACKPACKERS

February 2015 has seen Russell’s beloved hobby of growing indigenous flora mushrooming into a dream come true. After testing the market with small sales of indigenous plants for a while, he has just built a Greenhouse nursery selling over 50 indigenous species of trees, bulbs, ground covers, shrubs , succulents and creepers at the Giant’s Cup Cafe and Crafts, just 50 metres from Sani Lodge and on the same property. Five acres surrounding the Giant’s Cup Cafe and Sani Lodge has been planted indigenous over the past 20 years with great success. These gardens do not require any watering or nasty chemicals or fertilisers, they attract butterflies and birds galore particularly of the sunbird variety, duiker love to nibble at tasty shoots and as there are many bulbs and succulents, they remain dormant during the winter months coming alive in spring. Frost resistant is also the key factor so ideally suited to the high altitude mountain climate ,the gardens are low maintenance, environmentally friendly and very pleasing to the eye.
The seedlings are grown in recycled 500mls or 2 litre plastic PET bottles or recycled 500mls yoghurt containers as part of Sani Lodge’s recycling and re-using programme that has been in situ for many years.The yoghurt containers are cleaned, painted black on the outside and filled with soil that contains our homemade compost, cow and horse manure.